Reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. of interest: 3,798,799; 3,848,347; 3,882,561; and 4,083,127, all assigned to the same assignee as herein.
Many ski boots presently available comprise a substantially rigid outer shell generally made of a plastic material. A liner member is normally disposed within the shell and serves as a cushion between the shell and the foot of a skier. Generally, it is desired to have the ski boot and its components adapted to surround and be contoured to custom-fit the wearer's foot. In such cases, the boot is to provide a support function for the wearer's foot and ankle and enable firm contact to be obtained between the foot and the boot. Reference may be made to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,798,799 and 3,882,561 wherein the custom fitting operation is disclosed.
Because of the relatively stiff plastic materials utilized in ski boot shells, the shell of the boot is substantially rigid. Thus, when the skier is in a forward leaning position, at which time the knees of the skier generally are located above and slightly in front of the boot, pressure is exerted against the front portion of the boot. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,347 and 4,083,127 wherein there is illustrated means for readily adjusting the flex in the shell of a ski boot. Flexure is provided by means of an upwardly diverging slit or split portion of the boot in the instep area with fastening means across the slit or split portion for varying the slit width and thereby changing the flex. It has been found that if the skier widens the slit or split portion to obtain more boot flexure, this undesirably loosens the tightness or rigidity in the lower leg portion of the boot. In some cases the increased looseness cannot be overcome by tightening the boot buckles. Thus, it is desired to provide a means for adjusting the boot flexure in a normally, substantially rigit boot shell without at the same time loosening the top portion of the boot.